Pentagon wants to cut plans for Navy destroyers built at Bath
The Pentagon wants to scuttle construction of nearly half the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers planned for the next five years, and the cutback could affect Bath Iron Works.
The U.S. Department of Defense has proposed eliminating five of the 12 Burke destroyers already budgeted to be built in fiscal years 2021 through 2025, according to a report Tuesday by the trade magazine Defense News.
The 500-foot guided-missile warships are built by BIW, which launched the first one in 1989, and Huntington Ingalls Industries in Pascagoula, Miss.
The proposal would cut about about $9.4 billion, or 8%, of the shipbuilding budget in the DoD’s multi-year Future Years Defense Program, according to a White House memo obtained by Defense News. The program includes plans to procure 42 new Navy ships at a cost of over $110 billion.
Whether or not the cutback will occur, or how it might affect BIW, is unclear. The proposal is related to a budget that has not been approved, according to the magazine.
The new plan would shrink the size of the Navy fleet from 293 ships to 287, the memo said, which stands in contrast to the Navy’s goal of operating 355 ships. That number was formalized in the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act, and President Donald Trump has repeatedly backed the goal.
U.S. Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Angus King, I-Maine, called the cutback an “abrupt reversal.”
“Congress determines the authorization and funding for Navy shipbuilding,” they said.
The new comes on the heels of the Senate’s recent approval of $5 billion for the procurement of three Arleigh Burke-class destroyers.
There are currently over 60 Burke-class destroyers in service. BIW has produced 37 of them, the most recent of which launched in June.
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